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The Ledes

Thursday, July 3, 2025

CNBC: “Job growth proved better than expected in June, as the labor market showed surprising resilience and likely taking a July interest rate cut off the table. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 147,000 for the month, higher than the estimate for 110,000 and just above the upwardly revised 144,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. April’s tally also saw a small upward revision, now at 158,000 following an 11,000 increase.... Though the jobless rates fell [to 4.1%], it was due largely to a decrease in those working or looking for jobs.”

Washington Post: “A warehouse storing fireworks in Northern California exploded on Tuesday, leaving seven people missing and two injured as explosions continued into Wednesday evening, officials said. Dramatic video footage captured by KCRA 3 News, a Sacramento broadcaster, showed smoke pouring from the building’s roof before a massive explosion created a fireball that seemed to engulf much of the warehouse, accompanied by an echoing boom. Hundreds of fireworks appeared to be going off and were sparkling within the smoke. Photos of the aftermath showed multiple destroyed buildings and a large area covered in gray ash.” ~~~

The Wires

The Ledes

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

New York Times: “The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who emerged from the backwoods of Louisiana to become a television evangelist with global reach, preaching about an eternal struggle between good and evil and warning of the temptations of the flesh, a theme that played out in his own life in a sex scandal, died on July 1. He was 90.” ~~~

~~~ For another sort of obituary, see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code: <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts.

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

Page Links

Saturday

Apr162011

Whoops! Big Whoops!

In today's New York Times, Charles Blow blasts the House Republican/ Ryan/Tea Party budget: "More tax cuts would be gluttony in a time of starvation. That is not America. That is a nation about to be plundered, and a people laid to waste."

I wrote a comment to Blow's column, later published at #2. Reader Helen F. found a teensy-weensy problem with it, though. Check out that last sentence. On my honor, I am not a closet Republican shilling for Paul Ryan. I really, really, really meant "Progressive" there. Here's my comment, complete with any and all typos, including the error in the offensive last paragraph:

So if you're looking for an alternative budget plan that will help not only the poor but also the middle class, look no further than the Congress of the United States, where the Congressional Progressive Caucus has proposed a budget that moves toward balancing the budget at the same time it encourages job creation, clean energy and education, and it continues entitlement programs in full force.

Of course the rich, the super-rich and corporations will have to start paying their fair share of taxes to bring the CPC budget into balance, and we might have to quit fighting no-win wars around the globe, but are those caveats so bad? I don't think so.

With only four defectors from the Republican party, and not a single Democratic vote, the House passed the Ryan/Republican Tea Party budget today (Friday) that ends Medicare as we know it and reduces investment in social programs like Medicare and food stamps. The bill will go nowhere in the Senate (unless the Democratic leadership wants to get some of those Republican Senators on record voting for this anti-American bill). Even if the bill should pass the Senate, President Obama has promised to veto it.

With the House Republican bill dead in the water, we need to turn our attention toward a budget that will work for the American people. I say that budget is the Congressional Republican* Caucus budget. Let's stop talking about the bad guys long enough to focus on what the good guys have proposed.

* Uh, that should be "Progressive."

My comment on Gail Collins' column is still sitting in the holding pattern, so I'll post that, too. Collins noted, with some disappointment, that Mitt Romney failed to include in any of his books the story of his family trip to Canada during which he kept his dog strapped on the hood of the car. My comment:

Thanks for the laughs, Gail. Only you could find humor in ex-Governor Mitt.

Of course the biggest joke of all is that Mitt Romney is probably the best candidate Republicans can field this year. Since Mitt has been running for President since at least 2007 (what is he exploring again?), Republicans are already pretty tired of him. They're looking around longingly for somebody great like another Bush brother or Gov. Whatzhizname from Indiana who beat Wisconsin Gov. Walker to the punch on stripping those elitist union members of their collective bargaining rights. (He did it by executive order! He's bold! He did it on his first day in office! He's decisive!)

I'm not among that huge core of liberals who fell back in love with President Obama after his American Values Budget speech (it was a good speech), but Obama sure looks good when you hold him up next to Paperback Romney. I wonder if Mitt noticed Barack (or ghostwriter Bill Ayers) wrote a children's book last year. If Mitt noticed, let's hope we'll get a children's book from him, too. I'd suggest he base it on that glaring omission from his No Apology tome. A family trip to Canada with an Irish setter strapped to the roof of the car sounds like great fare for the kids. There's probably a moral for them in there somewhere, too.

P.S. After having had literally hundreds of my comments axed or held back by Times moderators and after hearing the same stories from many other Times would-be commenters, I've decided to start some kind of Alternate Times Comments page for those of us who get whacked from the Times comments pages. Stay tuned. I'm not 100 percent sure I'll be able to manage it, but I will give it a try.

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